Privacy Policy | The Travel Maverick SA

Who is responsible for your information

The "responsible party" under POPIA is The Travel Maverick SA (PTY) LTD, registration number [company registration number] ("we" or "us").

Physical address: 64 Conrad Drive, Blairgowrie, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2194, South Africa
Telephone: +27 78 673 3063
Email: travelmavericksa@gmail.com
Information Officer: [name of Information Officer], reachable at the email address above.

"Personal information" means information that identifies you or can be linked to you, such as your name, email address, phone number and booking details. "Processing" means anything we do with it, including collecting, storing, using, sharing and deleting it.

What we collect, why, and whether you have to give it

We collect personal information directly from you, or from the person who makes a booking on your behalf. The list below shows what we ask for and why. Where information is needed to make or manage your booking, we cannot provide the service without it.

Account: your name, email address and login details. We use them to create and manage your account and show you your trips. You do not have to create an account to contact us, but you need one to book online.
Trip bookings: your name, email address, phone number, the number of travellers, accommodation choice, departure date, special requests, payment method and payment reference. We use them to make, confirm, manage and invoice your booking and to contact you about it. Without them we cannot make the booking.
Shuttle bookings: your name, email address, travel date and pickup details, to arrange your transfer.
Airport concierge requests: your name, phone number or email address, airline, flight number and date, pickup address, number of bags and any notes. We may also check your identity document when we collect your luggage. We use this to plan and carry out your pickup.
Messages to us: your name, email address, phone number and the content of your message, so that we can reply.
Payments: bookings are currently paid by electronic funds transfer (EFT) into our bank account, so we hold your booking's payment reference but not your bank or card details. If we add card or PayPal payments, they will be processed by the payment provider and we will not store your full card number.
Our website: when your browser loads our pages, third-party services that supply fonts, icons and images can see your IP address and device details (see "Sending information outside South Africa" below).

Health and other sensitive information

If you tell us about a medical condition, disability, allergy, dietary need or similar matter, that is "special personal information" under POPIA. Sharing it is voluntary. By giving it to us you consent to us using it, and sharing what is necessary with the suppliers who host you, only to arrange your trip safely and suitably. If you choose not to tell us, we may not be able to make suitable arrangements. You can withdraw this consent at any time by contacting us.

How we use your information

We process personal information only for the reasons it was collected, and only as far as necessary:

to make, confirm, manage and change your bookings, and to take and record payment;
to arrange the services you have booked with suppliers such as transport operators, accommodation and guides;
to send you confirmations, reminders, safety information and changes to your booking;
to answer your questions, support you during your trip and deal with complaints;
to keep our website and business secure, and to prevent fraud and misuse;
to keep the records that South African law requires, for example for tax and accounting; and
to send you marketing, but only as set out below.

Our lawful grounds are that the processing is necessary to conclude or perform our agreement with you, to comply with the law, to protect legitimate interests (yours and ours, for example security and preventing fraud), or, where required, your consent.

Direct marketing

We will send you marketing by email, SMS or similar electronic messages only if you have agreed to receive it, or, as POPIA permits, if you are an existing customer and the message is about similar services and you have been given a chance to opt out. Every marketing message will tell you how to unsubscribe, and you can also opt out at any time by emailing us.

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only where necessary, with:

suppliers who deliver your booking, such as transport operators, accommodation providers, guides and, where relevant, airlines and airports;
banks and payment providers that process your payment;
service providers that help us run the website and our business, such as Cloudflare, Inc., which hosts our website and the database that holds your records, and email providers;
professional advisers, and the authorities or courts, where the law requires or allows it.

We share only what each recipient needs and expect them to protect it and use it only for the purpose we gave it for.

Sending information outside South Africa

Some of our trips take place in other countries, for example Mozambique, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mauritius. To arrange them we may need to share your details with suppliers there. POPIA allows this where it is necessary to perform our agreement with you, or where the recipient is bound by law or a binding agreement that gives similar protection to POPIA. Our website and database are hosted by Cloudflare, Inc., and its servers may be located outside South Africa. Some of the other third-party services used by our website (for example Google Fonts, Font Awesome and Unsplash) may also be hosted outside South Africa. Where personal information is stored or processed abroad, we rely on the provider being bound by law or a binding agreement that gives similar protection to POPIA.

Information stored in your browser

Our website keeps your light or dark theme choice in your browser's local storage. When you log in, it also sets a session cookie that keeps you signed in until you log out, or for up to 30 days. The session cookie is strictly necessary to keep your account secure and is not used for advertising or tracking. We do not use advertising or analytics trackers. Your account, booking and request records are stored in our database, not in your browser. You can remove the cookie and stored theme at any time through your browser's settings, which will sign you out.

How long we keep it

We keep personal information only for as long as we need it for the reasons it was collected, and for as long as South African law requires us to keep business records, such as tax and accounting records. After that we delete it or remove anything that identifies you.

How we protect it

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information against loss, damage, unauthorised access and unlawful use, and we limit access to people who need it. Your password is never stored as you typed it. It is kept only in scrambled (hashed) form, so we cannot read it, and our administration area can only be used by accounts we have authorised. No system is completely secure. If there is a security compromise that affects your personal information, we will tell the Information Regulator and the people affected, as POPIA requires.

Your rights

Under POPIA you have the right to:

ask us to confirm whether we hold personal information about you, and to see it, including who has had access to it;
ask us to correct information that is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading, or to delete information we are no longer allowed to keep;
object, on reasonable grounds, to us processing your information, unless the processing is needed to perform our agreement with you or to comply with the law;
object to direct marketing at any time, and withdraw any consent you have given (this does not affect processing that already took place lawfully);
complain to the Information Regulator, and take other legal steps if you believe your rights have been infringed.

To use any of these rights, email us at travelmavericksa@gmail.com. We may need to confirm your identity first, and we will respond within a reasonable time. Where the law allows, we may charge the prescribed fee for providing a copy of a record. You may also request access to records under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000.

Children

Our website and services are meant for adults. Under POPIA a child is a person under 18. Bookings that include a child must be made by a parent or legal guardian, who consents to us processing the child's information for the booking. We do not knowingly collect a child's information without that consent.

Complaints to the Information Regulator

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your personal information, please contact us first so that we can try to put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Regulator (South Africa):

Website: inforegulator.org.za
Complaints email: POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za
Address: JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001

Please check the Regulator's website for its current contact details.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if our services or the law change. The date at the top of this page shows when it was last updated.

Contact us

The Travel Maverick SA (PTY) LTD
64 Conrad Drive, Blairgowrie, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2194
+27 78 673 3063 · travelmavericksa@gmail.com